24 February, 2014

I wrote last year about how to spot an adult: They're the ones who don't feel the need to brag that they're an adult.

Now, nearly six months into the job, Tony Abbott's next great claim is that his immigration minister is not a wimp. Really, Tony? After what can only be described as an utter balls-up, is that all you've got? Australians don't want a wimp?

To quote the classics, It's so easy to laugh, it's so easy to hate; It takes guts to be gentle and kind. Strength is self-evident. If you have to boast about it, then you ain't got it.

Show me someone who brags about being grown up and I'll show you a petulant child.

Show me a grown man in a position of great power who still feels the need to prove he's not a wimp, and I'll show you a pathetic little WIMP.

16 February, 2014

What a difference an election makes! Suddenly the Coalition thinks that a shrill and obstructionist opposition is a bad thing. And no-one is more upset about it than that master of hypocrisy, Christopher Pyne. At a doorstop press conference last Thursday, he revealed that he had suddenly become aware of there being a difference between holding government to account and being ill-mannered.

He also said,

"I don’t think anybody ever accused me of rudeness."

The only way anyone could possibly think that Christopher Pyne was never accused of rudeness would be to not think at all. But just in case Mr Pyne really was living in a bubble until this week, let me make it perfectly clear:

Christopher Pyne, I accuse you of rudeness.

He went on to say,

"I don’t think I was ever ill-mannered and rude,"

which can only leave one with the impression that he really hasn't quite got the hang of this "thinking" lark.

I know better than to ask Mr Pyne if he doesn't think behaviour like this is rude:

Somebody famous starts
following you back on Twitter. What do you do next?

1: Brag about it on Facebook.

2: Send them a .@reply thanking them, making sure all your followers
see it.

3: Send a DM thanking them and expressing what a big fan you are.

4: Nothing. I’m cool.

5: Meh, no biggie. They probably follow everyone back automatically.

6: Ask them for an RT to promote your school fete.

7: Enact the next phase of your stalking plan.

8: Suddenly remember you have a Twitter account.

9: Suddenly remember you don’t have a Twitter account.

Question 8:

Pick one:

1: Lemonade

2: Chocolate feature wall

3: Purple

4: Mint

5: Origami

6: Jogging around a lake at 5:30pm

7: Hair

8: Lurex

9: 1873

Question 9:

You see a friend post a
link to a Buzzfeed list. What do you do?

1: Click it, read it, close it. Simples!

2: Click it and read it. Maybe click through a few more links, then
close it.

3: Click it, then keep clicking through the other links and lists.
You don’t have a problem. You could close it any time you want. It’s not
hurting anyone and you enjoy it, so what’s the problem? Anyway, you’re not my
mother so shut up!

4: Ignore it. They’re all stupid.

5: Block them. You don’t need that shit in your life.

6: Highly unlikely – you only use the internet for updating your
conspiracy website.

7: None of my friends would dare.

8: You vaguely remember this happening once and you have no idea
where the next two years went.

04 February, 2014

Look, I bow to no-one in my love of The Beatles but I really don’t give a shit about the impending fiftieth anniversary of the American mass market discovering them. To quote a later icon of British music, America is not the world. I get that 1964 was year-zero for The Beatles as far as a lot of people are concerned, but as far as the actual Beatles are concerned, it was anywhere between two and seven years earlier, depending on where you’re counting from. I mean, for me it was 1986 because that was when I began seriously listening to them, but nobody is ever going to celebrate that anniversary because it’s all about me.

Honestly, I’m glad I was born after Beatlemania because the hype would have pissed me off and it would have made it a lot harder to like them. Discovering them twenty years later allowed me to listen to the music on its own merits.

There is actually an important cultural anniversary connected with The Beatles’ first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, but it’s tangential to The Beatles and will probably be ignored amongst all the hype. It was possibly the first time millions of people had a shared experience of an historic event through live television in a way that became the norm from the first moon landing to September 11th. I could be wrong about that, there may be earlier examples and I’d be interested to hear about them. I considered the Kennedy assassination, but while that was covered live once the story broke, television wasn’t ubiquitous enough for everyone to switch over immediately. People were at work. I’m not saying things had changed three months later, but Sunday evening was a good time for a shared experience through a relatively new medium.

Anyway, that might be a bit too thinky to get a mention during the anniversary specials. Good luck to those looking forward to them. Some of them might tell me that I just don’t get it and they would be right. I know that a lot of people who saw the original Ed Sullivan appearance consider themselves to be The Original Fans. I also know there are still a few thousand ageing rockers from Liverpool and Hamburg who would say, “Oh really? Why don’t you tell me about it?”

About Me

Computer tutor, IT handyman, presenter of Strawberry Fields Radio, occasional songwriter and musician, and writer of some notes.
Here you will find my thoughts on music, politics, music DVDs and life in general.
I read the comments.
By the way, if anyone is wondering, since it’s an abbreviation of web-log, ’blog should be spelt with an apostrophe, like ’phone.